Cleaning decontamination

Other manufacturing procedures requiring validation include cleaning, decontamination and sanitation (CDS) procedures developed for specific items of equipment/processing areas. Of particular importance is the ability of such procedures to remove bioburden. This may be assessed by monitoring levels of microbial contamination before and after application of CDS protocols to the equipment item in question. 

The set up and use of the decontamination area must be careftdly thought out. Often, the area is split into different zones (Rotenberg et al, 2003). At a minimum, there must be a dirty contaminated zone and a clean decontaminated zone. It is critical to emphasize that traffic must go one-way between zones. This will eliminate the possibility of a cleaned patient becoming cross-contaminated or an exposed patient entering a health care facility before being decontaminated. Security personnel must be utilized to make sure patients do not consciously or unconsciously violate the rules. A secondary triage will be needed as patients enter the clean zone to allow patients to receive antidotes or be referred for further care. Keep in mind that for severely ill patients, antidote administration may precede decontamination. 

Acosta, E. (2007) Application of microemulsions in cleaning technologies and environmental remediation. In I. Johansson and R Somasundaran (eds), Handbook for Cleaning Decontamination, Vol. 2. Elsevier, Amsterdam, The Netherlands. 

To minimize the possibility of ingestion as well as the chances of ruining experiments through accidental contamination, limiting the radioactive work to a minimum area is essential. There should be no radioactivity exc t in the immediate working area, and upon conq>letion of the particular experimrait, all activity should be removed and the area cleaned decontaminated) if necessary. For low levels, this means working in a good hood with easily cleaned nonporous surfaces. 

Essential features of an equipment cleaning/decontamination process are ... 

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